Hot Topics:

Nation World

Immigrants hit hard by Hurricane Sandy afraid to ask for help

By Claudia TorrensThe Associated Press

Posted:
11/24/2012 07:07:28 PM MST

Updated:
11/24/2012 10:59:37 PM MST

Mexican immigrant Maria Lucero stands in front of the home she rented in Staten Island, N.Y., which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. After the storm, Lucero and her family moved in with friends, but Lucero says it is a temporary situation and she will feel more at peace when they have their own home again. (Seth Wenig, The Associated Press)

NEW YORK — Hurricane Sandy plunged some immigrants living illegally in the U.S. into darkness and even deeper into the shadows.

Some of those who need help to get temporary housing and food are afraid to come forward because they risk deportation. Many have returned to damaged, powerless, moldy homes because they have no other place to stay.

"My son has asthma, and now he is worse. The house has this smell of humidity and seawater," said Mexican immigrant Miguel Alarcon Morales while holding his 2-year-old son, Josias. "It is not safe to live there. I am starting to feel sick too."

Advocates are stepping up their efforts to get help to immigrants in hard-hit areas, in some cases going to door to door.

"If you are here illegally and you are at your home and see the National Guard and people in military uniform, going up and down, sure, you are going to be afraid," said Gonzalo Mercado, executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante, a nonprofit that helps day laborers and their families in Staten Island.

"To not be informed means to be afraid. That is why we are here, to inform immigrants of resources available to them," Mercado said.

The New York City area is home to more than 2.3 million Latinos, according to census numbers. Some places that were hardest hit are known as landing spots for Mexican immigrants. Nonprofits that work in the area calculate at least 20,000 Mexicans in hard-hit Staten Island.

Advertisement

Officials from the Mexican government have visited shelters in New York and New Jersey looking for immigrants to help, informing them on how to obtain food stamps and financial assistance from FEMA or the Mexican government.

More than 735 people have signed up to receive economic help from the government of President Felipe Calderon, but there is only $180,000 so far to distribute, said the Mexican consul in New York, Carlos Sada. As of this week, 66 checks had been written to victims of the hurricane, totaling $110,000.

More than three weeks after Hurricane Sandy, the five members of the Morales family still live at their rental home in Staten Island, where floodwaters reached the second floor. Although the home has power, there is no heat. The family uses an electric heater.

Because Morales' children were born in the U.S., he can apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency help, but he has been hesitant to do so.

"When one has no legal documents, that person will always think that there can be repercussions," said Morales, who lost his job at an ice-cream store in New Jersey that closed after the storm. He now works part time at a bakery.

Asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement had conducted immigration enforcement in the area in the aftermath of the storm, Luis Martinez, ICE's spokesman in New York, said the agency has been conducting "limited street enforcement operations."

The agency will be "resuming normal enforcement activity, with continued emphasis on at-large criminal aliens, in the near future," an ICE statement said.

One-day event to run slide down University HillIt's not quite the alternative mode of transportation that Boulder's used to, but, for one day this summer, residents will be able to traverse several city blocks atop inflatable tubes.

DETROIT (AP) — In a story March 27 about a 'Little Syria' exhibit going to Ellis Island, The Associated Press, due to incorrect information from the Arab American National Museum, erroneously reported the date the exhibit will open. Full Story